Wierd Squid problem, unable to open howtoforge

Hi,
There are 2 squid(2.5.STABLE12 ) servers with identical config. First is running on RHEL4 and other is on FreeBSD 6.3.

I'm struggling with these two problems:

1. Unable to open "howtoforge.com" site when using RHEL squid. Its strange as config file is identical to FreeBSD squid where site is opening fine. Browser keep saying "Transferring data from howtoforge...." or "Read howtoforge.com..." for forever even after repeatitive refreshing.

2. While downloading data (say 100 MB) from net, oftenly speed degrade rapidly and download get stalled or continue with very poor speed. dont have any dealy pools or any such restrictions but facing the same problem using both squid servers. If bypass squid, download complete fine.

Here is squid.conf from FreeBSD machine (though both are identical except paths):